Speaker 1: Welcome to another episode of Civic Cipher. I am your host,
Speaker 1: Ramsey's job.
Speaker 2: He is Rams's job. I am q Ward. This is
Speaker 2: not the Quiet Storm. I'm just trying to get my
Speaker 2: voice back. You are tuned in to Civic Cite.
Speaker 1: Yes, indeed, stick around. We have an excellent show lined
Speaker 1: up for you today. We're going to talk about local
Speaker 1: elections and why they are important and what can go
Speaker 1: wrong if you choose not to participate or if you
Speaker 1: choose to ignore it. And you know, the best part
Speaker 1: about today's episode is we have an incredible gentleman with
Speaker 1: us today, a very special guest and a dear friend
Speaker 1: of mine and a friend of the show, mister Jevin Hodge,
Speaker 1: who most recently was the Democratic nominee in Arizona's first
Speaker 1: district that's Scott Still for those that know, and his
Speaker 1: race of all the four hundred and thirty five seats
Speaker 1: was the sixth closest, decided ten days after the election,
Speaker 1: and decided by less than one percent of the vote.
Speaker 1: And I'm confident that list goes on. So please say
Speaker 1: hello to our listeners and let them know a little
Speaker 1: bit more about.
Speaker 3: Well, the first thing I have to say is thank
Speaker 3: you for having me, thanks for being here, and thanks
Speaker 3: to all the folks you know tuning in and this
Speaker 3: is this is about to be a great show. I'm
Speaker 3: really looking forward to. Thank you for the introduction and
Speaker 3: the reason. One of the things I'm most excited for
Speaker 3: because I've been involved in politics and government for a
Speaker 3: while here. When out I was elected at twenty two
Speaker 3: years old to lead the Democratic Party in the state
Speaker 3: of Arizona. I was the youngest statewide black official in
Speaker 3: the country. And one of my jobs is making sure
Speaker 3: we get folks elected, and we get and we have
Speaker 3: conversations around civic engagement, and we have run for local office.
Speaker 3: I've run for the Meericopa County Board of Supervisors in
Speaker 3: one of the closest races in Arizona history, and then
Speaker 3: most recently, for the United States Congress. So I'm excited
Speaker 3: to talk about the importance of being involved and being engaged,
Speaker 3: but more importantly, the power of your voice.
Speaker 1: Right well, I can't wait to get to all of
Speaker 1: that and so much more. Like I said, great show
Speaker 1: lined up for you today. But first and form most
Speaker 1: like we always do at this time, it is time
Speaker 1: for some ebony excellence. Q. So we shall so. Today's
Speaker 1: EBNY Excellence is sponsored by Hip Hop Weekly Media and
Speaker 1: I will be sharing from binnews dot com. Shout out
Speaker 1: to the Black Information Network one time if you don't want.
Speaker 1: A Georgia high school student has earned over a million
Speaker 1: dollars in scholarships from dozens of schools across the country. Quote,
Speaker 1: I'm so blessed to have this opportunity, seventeen year old
Speaker 1: Regis Harris said or Atlanta News First. He goes on
Speaker 1: to say there were several schools at the top of
Speaker 1: my list. Parris, a senior at Chapel Hill High and Douglasville,
Speaker 1: was accepted to over forty colleges that are offering the
Speaker 1: total of one point six million dollars in scholarships. Some
Speaker 1: of the schools include the University of Georgia and USC.
Speaker 1: He says, there was a lot of sacrifices. There were
Speaker 1: a lot of nights I stayed up studying all night long.
Speaker 1: The straight A student is a member of the band,
Speaker 1: chess club, varsity track team, and National Honor Society. He
Speaker 1: also works part time and sings in the church choir.
Speaker 1: Harris said he sees community service just as just as
Speaker 1: important as his academics. He goes on to say, the
Speaker 1: hardest part for me was that I balanced staying on
Speaker 1: top of work, but also that I maintained being a
Speaker 1: well rounded person. He was born in the heart condition
Speaker 1: and his parents say their son has been a fighter
Speaker 1: all of his life. Quote. The doctors told me he
Speaker 1: would be developmentally delayed, his mother, Kia Harris said, quote
Speaker 1: they even stated that he might have to have heart surgery. Again,
Speaker 1: he is our miracle. But Harris has been able to
Speaker 1: defy the odds and looks forward to the next chapter
Speaker 1: in his life. Quote. I'm looking forward to being able
Speaker 1: to adapt, to expand my mind, my learning, and I
Speaker 1: can't wait, he said Harris Frans, who attend North Carolina
Speaker 1: A and T where he'll study biology and hopes of
Speaker 1: becoming a psychiatrist. So shout out to Regis Harris. You
Speaker 1: are indeed ebony excellence. Now but local Okay, we've talked
Speaker 1: about this on the show before, but today we have
Speaker 1: an expert in the building, a political commentator in Jevin Hodge,
Speaker 1: and someone who can help educate us and you at
Speaker 1: the same time in terms of why these things are
Speaker 1: so important. So what we'll do is we'll talk about
Speaker 1: some of the things that have happened recently, and what
Speaker 1: I'd like to do is get your reaction and just
Speaker 1: kind of the wise, let's do it.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So, the one thing that's been making I guess
Speaker 1: the most news in this space in the past week
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks, i should say, is Tennessee. So
Speaker 1: the Tennessee House expelled two Democratic black lawmakers after falling
Speaker 1: short of outs ousting another that we're always ties me up.
Speaker 1: So Tennessee's Republican controlled House of Representatives voted to expel
Speaker 1: representatives Justin Jones and Justin Pearson a week after they
Speaker 1: let a gun reform protest on the House floor. Don't worry,
Speaker 1: the story has a happy ending. But I think that
Speaker 1: this example, and we'll get to the others, shows exactly
Speaker 1: how much power there is in local governments. So talk
Speaker 1: to us about maybe what happened here and how folks
Speaker 1: participating in the election process can help shape these.
Speaker 3: Absolutely absolutely, And I want to start by highlighting a
Speaker 3: theme that we're going to keep coming back to today
Speaker 3: on the show, and is that your vote matters and
Speaker 3: your voice matters, and what folks often forget is how
Speaker 3: powerful their vote and their voice really truly are, and
Speaker 3: it's our jobs to remind them and remind them the
Speaker 3: power of their participation in their democracy, the power of
Speaker 3: participating in government, the power of utilizing their vote at
Speaker 3: the ballot box and utilizing their voice, whether it's that
Speaker 3: vote at the ballot box or a demonstration or whatever
Speaker 3: that may be.
Speaker 5: But this situation here.
Speaker 3: Is truly unique because there were three lawmakers that were
Speaker 3: voted to be expelled, two black piles and another that
Speaker 3: was not a black individual. But the only two lawmakers
Speaker 3: that had the votes to be expelled were the two
Speaker 3: black individuals. So there's a there's a racial component that
Speaker 3: competes with that is involved in this. But the reason
Speaker 3: why they were were up for the explosion was because
Speaker 3: they were utilizing their voice and protected under the First Amendment,
Speaker 3: right is your freedom of speech. They weren't doing anything unlawful,
Speaker 3: they weren't doing anything to infringe upon the freedoms or
Speaker 3: the safety of anyone else, but simply protesting a significant
Speaker 3: issue that we have here in this country around gun
Speaker 3: violence and the future of gun rights and all of that.
Speaker 3: And so these individuals were and what they were doing
Speaker 3: is that they were protesting they were utilizing their voice
Speaker 3: in the space in which they could garner the attention
Speaker 3: right on the floor of the House of Representative Where's
Speaker 3: going to matter exactly? And so let's go back now
Speaker 3: to the most important thing. How your vote in your
Speaker 3: voice matters. Okay, when you don't participate in an election,
Speaker 3: people get elected. That may not do the best thing
Speaker 3: by the individual, right, And you know it's not it's
Speaker 3: not one side or another that basically decides an election.
Speaker 3: It really comes down to the folks that are are apathetic.
Speaker 3: It's it's the apathy that decides an election. I mean,
Speaker 3: we are the most advanced nation in the world where
Speaker 3: in elect a great election, right, we see sixty five
Speaker 3: seventy percent participation, I mean, and that's just outstanding.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that'd be an astronomical.
Speaker 5: Test, that's exactly right.
Speaker 3: So you're telling me, you're telling me that at the
Speaker 3: end of the day, if only seventy percent of the
Speaker 3: people participate, right, that's great. I you know, and don't
Speaker 3: get me wrong, I understand a C is still passing grade.
Speaker 3: But when you live in a country that the first
Speaker 3: Amendment right is the value of your voice, the value
Speaker 3: of the freedom of your speech, and you're not utilizing that.
Speaker 3: That means that our system is flipped on its head
Speaker 3: at its core. And so in situations like this happens
Speaker 3: because you have people in communities that aren't utilizing their votes,
Speaker 3: and you have individuals that are getting elected because of apathy.
Speaker 3: You get individuals that are getting elected in districts right,
Speaker 3: whether it's at the state level in this case, or
Speaker 3: at city levels and the municipal level, because of the
Speaker 3: lack of participation, and a lot of the times, right,
Speaker 3: A lot of the times, and this is the one
Speaker 3: that blows my mind. These elections are decided by small
Speaker 3: amounts of votes.
Speaker 1: I was actually gonna suggest that I remember seeing something
Speaker 1: on Netflix recently and this kind of put the thought
Speaker 1: in my head. What was suggested in this documentary I
Speaker 1: forget the name of it, but what was suggested was
Speaker 1: that because of how our political system is set up,
Speaker 1: a vote from an individual in California is worth approximately
Speaker 1: half in terms of its value to the overall election
Speaker 1: process than a vote from a white landowner male who
Speaker 1: lives in Wisconsin. And that got me to thinking, if
Speaker 1: I don't vote, if I don't engage, which historically my
Speaker 1: understanding is that those of us of a more liberal
Speaker 1: persuasion tend to vote less, and those with more conservative
Speaker 1: values are very much engaged at every level of the
Speaker 1: political process. So if I, being a liberal minded individual,
Speaker 1: don't vote, that ensures that the vote of those who
Speaker 1: perhaps want to see the country revert back to an
Speaker 1: earlier time state whatever, or it actually increases the weight
Speaker 1: of their vote. If I don't engage in the political process,
Speaker 1: is that that that is a very very good way
Speaker 1: of looking at ok. Right, And and I want to
Speaker 1: start by saying this, like, I have my views, I
Speaker 1: have my ideological standing and what I believe, and I'm
Speaker 1: a proud Democrat. I don't run from it.
Speaker 3: But as someone who has vied for elected office, my
Speaker 3: job is not to be an ambassador of a certain
Speaker 3: interests or a certain ideological stance, but to be a
Speaker 3: representative of one hundred percent of population. And that's what's missing, right,
Speaker 3: because of exactly what you just highlighted. If we have
Speaker 3: one for one participation, then that means that you know,
Speaker 3: the elected official is forced to limits into both people.
Speaker 3: But for every one vote, you got two on the
Speaker 3: other side. And that could be Democrat or Republican. But
Speaker 3: in this case, right, it's you know, for every one
Speaker 3: liberal that doesn't vote right, another you know conservative does
Speaker 3: vote right. That's one for two, which means that the
Speaker 3: elected official that is elected only has to cater to
Speaker 3: one ideological.
Speaker 6: To the voter is exactly the population the voters that
Speaker 6: are participating, right, And you know exactly I just I
Speaker 6: just want to make sure we're clear about that, right,
Speaker 6: because everybody, you know, as long as you're registered your voter, right,
Speaker 6: But if you're not participating.
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, you hope that they got to pay attention
Speaker 1: to the people who are.
Speaker 3: That's exactly right, That's exactly right. That's exactly right. And
Speaker 3: that's the reason why our system is flawed. Right, Our
Speaker 3: system is flawed because we you have individuals that are
Speaker 3: working every single day to destroy what we all collectively
Speaker 3: have worked so hard to protect and to preserve. Right,
Speaker 3: And as long as voting is difficult, there's no reason
Speaker 3: why we don't have automatic voter registration nation. Why, there's
Speaker 3: no reason why you know, we're not automatically registering eighteen
Speaker 3: year olds in their Civics class or history class while
Speaker 3: they're in high school. Right. But but but that's by design, right,
Speaker 3: because as long as is certain folks are making it
Speaker 3: harder for people to vote. That means that they're going
Speaker 3: to be able to make atin in office. That means
Speaker 3: that they're going to be able to continue to do
Speaker 3: nonsense things like what happened in Tennessee. Right, and again,
Speaker 3: let's go back to the beginning. Your vote matters, and
Speaker 3: your voice matters. You may not always get what you
Speaker 3: strive for, but your vote matters, and your voice matters.
Speaker 1: I appreciate it.
Speaker 2: Before we move on, how do we get people to
Speaker 2: believe what you just said?
Speaker 6: Right?
Speaker 2: Because the disenfranchisement of the voter sets the table for
Speaker 2: the outcome that you guys just talked about, where I
Speaker 2: only have to hater my messaging to the people who
Speaker 2: are going to actually turn out. I know these people
Speaker 2: aren't going to turn out because I and my colleagues
Speaker 2: have shown them that their voice does not matter.
Speaker 4: Even those that come out and vote.
Speaker 2: I've shown them now from multiple election cycles, your voice
Speaker 2: really doesn't matter. So as that number starts to dwindle
Speaker 2: and people get less and less motivated to even show up, then,
Speaker 2: of course, why would I have any messaging or any
Speaker 2: policy promises to these people who I know based on
Speaker 2: my behavior, you're in those like me, I've gotten to
Speaker 2: a point where they are apathetic, where they do not
Speaker 2: feel like their voice matters, and we keep proving it
Speaker 2: to them.
Speaker 5: My brother, that.
Speaker 3: Right there is what keeps me up at night. Right
Speaker 3: Like you just gave me chills asking that question, because
Speaker 3: we have to change the class of people who are
Speaker 3: running for office, because you have the disenfranchised folks, and
Speaker 3: there are so many different categories of disenfranchised folks who
Speaker 3: live below the socio economic belt, right, folks like us
Speaker 3: black from the black community. Right, you got folks in
Speaker 3: the LGBT community community. When you feel forgotten and left
Speaker 3: behind by your government because of the elected officials, you
Speaker 3: have no desire to participate, in no willingness to participate.
Speaker 3: So we have to flip that on its head. And
Speaker 3: I'll just give you a very practical example. I've run
Speaker 3: for office twice. I've run for office, and I've had
Speaker 3: over a million people cast their votes and elections for me,
Speaker 3: and both of my elections when you combine the vote
Speaker 3: vote totals together is less than thirty five hundred votes.
Speaker 3: And the reason being is because I personally believe we
Speaker 3: expanded the electorate. I ran for the county supervisors, which
Speaker 3: is like a county commissioner Americopa County, for a district
Speaker 3: that had over a million people. The vote was decided
Speaker 3: fifteen days after the election by four hundred and three votes.
Speaker 3: And I ran in a district where as a Democrat,
Speaker 3: where Trump carried the district by eight points to the
Speaker 3: election before. This was not a democratic district. And then
Speaker 3: I just ran for the United States Congress in a
Speaker 3: district where you had a twelve year Republican incumbent and
Speaker 3: my race was decided by zero point seven percent or
Speaker 3: three thousand votes, eight ten days after the election. The
Speaker 3: reason why I highlight that is because when you can
Speaker 3: flip the status quo on its head, the results will always.
Speaker 5: Be in your favor. And we do differently, and I
Speaker 5: always say we is that we weren't campaigning. Never once
Speaker 5: did I campaign for offense. It was about building of
Speaker 5: movement to strengthen our democracy. And when you can inspire
Speaker 5: people to believe that never believe that their governm or
Speaker 5: their democracy was for them, that changes the complete composition
Speaker 5: of the system. And what's going to have to happen
Speaker 5: in order to change the makeup of the you know.
Speaker 5: I mean, look, let me tell you one of my
Speaker 5: favorite quotes. If you want to change the laws, you
Speaker 5: got to change the law makers. And the only way
Speaker 5: to change the law makers is to make.
Speaker 3: Sure that you have people who are reflective of the
Speaker 3: community participating in their election.
Speaker 1: You got to change the voters. And I want to
Speaker 1: jump in right here because I think that this is
Speaker 1: exactly what we're seeing for those folks who might be
Speaker 1: disengaged in the political process. If I had to guess
Speaker 1: the best way to see what it could look like
Speaker 1: if everybody, not just you, I know, as individuals. Everybody's
Speaker 1: focused on money. I'm not mad at you. We all
Speaker 1: are focused on money. But this is a long road
Speaker 1: that we have to walk, and money's at the end
Speaker 1: of it. We got a lot of stuff to get
Speaker 1: through before we get there. And this is my belief.
Speaker 1: So if we want to have an idea of how
Speaker 1: it could look, we can just look at the way
Speaker 1: conservatives move, and in particular we're talking about you know, Tennessee.
Speaker 1: Those representatives were elected, all those Republican representatives were elected,
Speaker 1: and as soon as they had an opportunity, as soon
Speaker 1: as they had the smallest little bit of dirt. You
Speaker 1: know what the funniest thing is that we you know,
Speaker 1: we're all black men in here. We always say how
Speaker 1: we have to be twice as good to be Yeah, exactly,
Speaker 1: twice as good to go half as far. So this
Speaker 1: is a perfect example of that. You know, they didn't
Speaker 1: mess up. But you know, as soon as the conservative
Speaker 1: majority they're found in angle, they didn't censor.
Speaker 3: Them, did them. They exactly they did the job that
Speaker 3: they were elected to do exactly. These people probably campaign
Speaker 3: on these principles exactly. And I want to just highlight
Speaker 3: to exactly what you just said. I want to bring
Speaker 3: this back to your point, Q. When you can make
Speaker 3: people feel something and you can inspire them to believe
Speaker 3: in something greater than them, that's how we strengthen the system.
Speaker 3: That's how we you know, it's not just asking people
Speaker 3: to vote, right, it's asking the question of how can
Speaker 3: I be a part of your life? How can we
Speaker 3: make your life better? And it's not just going to
Speaker 3: go talk to them in October before the November election.
Speaker 3: It's talking to them in December before the election in
Speaker 3: two years, right, It's making sure that we have this
Speaker 3: continuous conversation and I just want to give you an
Speaker 3: example that's very fresh in all of our minds, right
Speaker 3: and one that we probably won't forget. And I know
Speaker 3: you got I know, y'all got a lot of listeners
Speaker 3: out there that's much younger than us, so they may
Speaker 3: not remember what the country felt like in O eight.
Speaker 3: But President Obama inspired you to believe, hope, change, right,
Speaker 3: inspired you to believe in something that never you know,
Speaker 3: we can never imagine existing. If y'all remember, y'all remember
Speaker 3: how it felt in O eight in twenty ten, where
Speaker 3: people were inspired to participate, Well, the same phenomenon happened
Speaker 3: in twenty sixteen, it just wasn't to us. President Trump
Speaker 3: inspired a group of people who felt forgotten and left
Speaker 3: behind by the previous administration. And that's how he got elected, right,
Speaker 3: He got inspired a group of people who felt forgotten
Speaker 3: and left behind. So two very good examples on different
Speaker 3: sides of the ideological spectrum. But what they did is
Speaker 3: the same exact thing, right. Well, one campaign was filled
Speaker 3: with lies and bigotry and xenophobia, we're not gonna go
Speaker 3: to you know, we're not gonna go there, racism and
Speaker 3: you know, and all those things. But they essentially attempted
Speaker 3: to inspire a group of people who felt forgotten and
Speaker 3: left behind by their government. Right, and when we can
Speaker 3: do that at the local level, right, that's how we
Speaker 3: build a more transparent, a more efficient government. You know,
Speaker 3: my mother, for example, is a city council woman in
Speaker 3: the city attempte first black woman elected in the city attempe.
Speaker 3: I mean, this woman is living history. But what she
Speaker 3: has done, you know, she's out there. You know, when
Speaker 3: community members are angry at a decision that she made,
Speaker 3: she doesn't run in the back room. She goes and
Speaker 3: puts up a chair and like, if they want to yell,
Speaker 3: and if they want to argue, you know, and it's
Speaker 3: never argument. Let me be clear, If they want to
Speaker 3: voice the frustration, she is there for them to touch
Speaker 3: and allow them to voice the frustration, because that's what
Speaker 3: your elected officials is supposed to do, not run away
Speaker 3: in those tough moments. Are catered to the people that
Speaker 3: are kids in your tail.
Speaker 1: Now, I also want to talk about some other examples
Speaker 1: in local governments, So Q, why don't you take us
Speaker 1: to North Dakota.
Speaker 2: Ramses deals with these issues a lot better than I do,
Speaker 2: because flagrant hypocrisy, flagrant flagrant bigotry, flagrant racism. They hit
Speaker 2: me a little different. I think a lot of our
Speaker 2: colleagues and constituents have determined that flagrant and direct racism, bigotry,
Speaker 2: and hypocrisy is kind of intellectually beneath them to emote about.
Speaker 4: And it drives me.
Speaker 1: Insane, because you care about people.
Speaker 3: Brother.
Speaker 2: The Bismar Tribune is where this story comes from. Ten
Speaker 2: days after narrowly defeating a bill to provide free school
Speaker 2: lunches to low income K through twelve students, this is
Speaker 2: even and I laugh because of how frustrating this is
Speaker 2: to read. The North Dakota Senate approved legislation to increase
Speaker 2: the amount of money lawmakers and other state employees received
Speaker 2: in the meal reimbursements. I'm going to read that again
Speaker 2: because it's really that unbelievable. Ten days after defeating a
Speaker 2: bill to provide school lunches free school lunches to children,
Speaker 2: that same body went on to approve legislation to increase
Speaker 2: the amount of money they get them and their colleagues
Speaker 2: for meal reimbursement. Let's take money from our children while
Speaker 2: approving legislation legislation. I'm sorry to give ourselves more money
Speaker 2: or the same thing.
Speaker 1: It's a wild world we live in.
Speaker 2: But I think that these are duly elected officials, by
Speaker 2: the way.
Speaker 1: But again, this is an incredible example of exactly how
Speaker 1: far your vote in local elections can go. The temperament,
Speaker 1: the values of these people, you know, for those even
Speaker 1: even Republicans. There's a quote from the Bible. I think
Speaker 1: it came from Jesus and it's like the poor you
Speaker 1: will have with you always or something like that.
Speaker 2: Right, that bill approved by Republican law matris as if
Speaker 2: I needed to say that, So.
Speaker 1: You know, I think there's a term rhino Republican name
Speaker 1: only you know what I mean. But folks with with
Speaker 1: those biblical values that that that party tends to espouse
Speaker 1: would not be voting in this way. Right, What is
Speaker 1: the purpose of the government if not to care for children?
Speaker 2: When you are talking about people who use the Lord
Speaker 2: Jesus Christ for market well, these are not beliefs.
Speaker 3: John McCain a pr campaign, Well you know that that's
Speaker 3: a whole other topic for a segment down the road.
Speaker 3: But you know it's folks like John McCain rest in peace, right,
Speaker 3: Folks like Barry Goldwater rest in peace. These are traditional
Speaker 3: principled conservatives. But at the end of the day, you know,
Speaker 3: and I got the opportunity before the Senator passed away
Speaker 3: to work with the Senator on a few different things,
Speaker 3: and we didn't always agree. And there are a number
Speaker 3: of different Republicans that I still work with to this
Speaker 3: day that we don't always agree on. But you know,
Speaker 3: the heart isn't the right place, sure, and with initiatives
Speaker 3: like this right, you are led to ask the question
Speaker 3: of why the hell are you doing this right, because
Speaker 3: it doesn't make any sense. What's the purpose of a
Speaker 3: government if not to take care of kids children, And
Speaker 3: and you know they're going to give you some fiscal argument,
Speaker 3: they're going to give you this discussion about this or that,
Speaker 3: But it's the second action is the one that we
Speaker 3: must be most concerned about, that right. And it's the
Speaker 3: fact that they just a week later they voted for
Speaker 3: meal reinbursements for themselves.
Speaker 1: So their hypocrisy is on full display.
Speaker 3: So it's, you know, the philosophical standing here is that,
Speaker 3: you know, we don't want to pay for everybody to
Speaker 3: have everything, but it's okay for us to have it.
Speaker 3: And that's that's the issue, because look, if it's if
Speaker 3: it's an intellectual discussion, right rooted and based in substance,
Speaker 3: I'm happy to have it, right like. Okay, So if
Speaker 3: the budget doesn't support paying for you know, free not
Speaker 3: saying that that's my personal opinion, but if the budget
Speaker 3: doesn't support it, and you can logically articulate why and where,
Speaker 3: you know there's going to be shortcomings, let's have the discussion.
Speaker 3: But you can't say that, you know, I can't give
Speaker 3: money to these folks because I don't want to, but
Speaker 3: I can give money to us because I want to,
Speaker 3: right Like, that's not you know, but let's go back
Speaker 3: to the number one thing, and and nine year olds
Speaker 3: can't get a job.
Speaker 4: There you go.
Speaker 1: So before we wrap this part of the show up,
Speaker 1: I do want to mention the instance, this one in
Speaker 1: North Carolina. So this comes from CBS News. A Democrat
Speaker 1: in a North Carolina state House switch to the Republican
Speaker 1: Party Wednesday. Given the GOP veto proof control in both
Speaker 1: chambers of the legislature, it's a setback for Democratic Governor
Speaker 1: Roy Cooper as he tries to block hardline conservative policies
Speaker 1: in his final two years in office. Basically, what this
Speaker 1: means is that they can override the governor's vetos. So
Speaker 1: what you're seeing now is people who vote in the
Speaker 1: election process every four years. I believe that's when you
Speaker 1: have a chance to pick your governors. But people not
Speaker 1: voting in, you know, the local elections, which tend to
Speaker 1: also be overrepresented by conservatives. So you have a state
Speaker 1: like North Carolina where the conservatives run the House and
Speaker 1: the state House and the state Senate. But you have
Speaker 1: a democratic, democratic governor and now he can't do anything
Speaker 1: because of a lack of engagement.
Speaker 4: So I wonder why someone would make such a switch.
Speaker 3: I was